Star Crossed Lovers
by Magical Trixs
Summary: They say that the stars tell the past, present, and future. Well for gaara and ino, They were always meant to be, even before they were born. But that isn't the only mystery and secrets this story holds. Read and find out!
1. First encounter

The Twin Relics

Long ago, before ninja mastery existed, this world was ruled by gods. They held unimaginable power only known to them. They were aggravated that they weren't the only ones with unique power. Jealous of having to share the power, they held a battle. As the battle raged on for days, they began destroying the world. When they realized their ambitious needs they stopped fighting to try and preserve the earth. It was said that when the the lands, skies, and seas were withering away, they all combined their full powers to give life back to the dying environment. It is also said that the powers didn't just reach the land but people who inhabited them. That's were it's said that the origin of chakra nature began. Since the gods sacrificed their power and immortality, they were sentenced to live a normal life and taste the true hardship everyone else had. As the gods were retreating from the battle ground, One of them revealed himself to still posses incredible power. The gods were angered by his selfish greed, and thus, with every last ounce of life and power the had left, they created two crystal relics. They sealed both their good will's and the evil gods power, inside these relics. It was said that they then transferred the two relics inside a human baby who would be born in the future. When despair and grief fills the child's soul, it will unleash the power of the relics and cause mayhem through out the world.

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It was a quiet but beautiful day in konoha, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. In Particular the sun was shining brightly on the Yamanaka's flower shop. We find ourselves in the flower shop with Ino Yamanaka, a beautiful young woman with blond hair and aqua blue eyes.

"It's such a beautiful day outside and I'm stuck in here. It's not exactly what I call a vacation." She let out a heavy sigh. Ino had recently been told by the hokage herself that she was on vacation from all of her training and assisting she had been doing.

She picked up a magazine and started reading it. Hours had passed before she realized it was almost closing time.

"I can't believe there weren't any customers today." she murmured to herself.

When she was just about to close the shop she saw a shadow a couple of feet away from the entrance, coming closer and closer. As it came closer to the door, she saw the person through the transparent glass and could not believe it with her own eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was no other than the person she had meet only briefly a couple of years ago in the chūnin exams. Sabaku No Gaara. He looked different, handsomer, taller, and wearing a new set of clothing. Of course no one could confuse him because he had that burgundy red hair, jade green eyes that were surrounded by the dark rings, and that kanji mark on his forehead. Ino was shocked that he was here of all places. I mean she knew he was in konoha on a mission because shikamaru had told her briefly about the siblings arrival. In any case she had to do her job and make him feel welcomed in her flower shop.

"W-welcome to Yamanaka's flower shop. I'm the florist, Ino Yamanaka " Ino said with a smile on her face. She was a bit nervous but quickly gained her composure.

He didn't respond so quickly but looked around the shop as if he'd never seen flowers before. Not only was she in shock but it seemed Gaara was also puzzled of what he was doing in there. Gaara finally turned his attention towards Ino. He showed no expression on his face. His pale mint green eyes pierced her aqua blue eyes and it was silent for a few seconds. Ino suddenly looked away for a bit, not wanting to look into Gaara's gorgeous eyes. She quickly turned her attention back to gaara closed her eyes and quickly responded with a smile on her face.

"Can I help you with find anything today gaara-sama."

He seemed surprised that she knew his name but was reluctant to call her name although he did know it.

"I…" he said, struggling to finish his sentence.

He quickly looked on the floor for just a moment and quickly shook his head. He then turned around and walked out the store. Trying to figure everything that just happened, Ino realized it was 8:00 pm and she had to close the store. Everything happened so fast and she was in a daze from the current events that just happened. She shook her head and began to lock everything up for the night.

On her way home she once again tried to figure out why Gaara of the sand was in her shop.

_'Why was he in the shop today?' _Ino thought to herself. _'__And what was with his appearance, he definitely doesn't look like the gaara I first saw at the chūnin exams.'_ She suddenly remembered his mint green eyes, and she began to blush a bit. _'__I can't believe I'm thinking about gaara…'_ she said lightly. _'__Pull yourself together Ino.'_

Ino had finally reached her house; "Hi sweetie" came her fathers voice. She was really exhausted from a day at work and didn't respond to her father. She ran straight to her room and fell on her bed. She grabbed the nearest pillow next to her and hugged it tightly. "I'm so glad everyone enjoys the flowers at the shop…" She said quietly in the pillow. _'but I wish that…someone would noticed me… rather than the objects in the shop.'_ Then she remembered that Gaara was in the shop earlier and wasn't just looking at the flowers, but at ino as well. "What could he of wanted?" ino said whispering to herself. "Gaara?" she said faintly as she was tired and found herself falling asleep as soon as she said his name.

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The next morning ino woke up sweating from a frightful nightmare. It wasn't shocking because she had been getting the same nightmare for quite some time now. It scares her to death when she thinks about it and she can't seem to figure out what it means. Well whatever it meant she had to put it away for now and get ready for work. It was Saturday today and again was a beautiful and glorious day. Ino's clock began to ring and she opened her eyes. She looked at the clock and her eyes widened. It was 10:30 am.

"Oh no" ino said. "I'm going to be late for work". She tied her hair in a pony tail with a baby blue flower scrunchie. She considered that today would be a casual day at the shop so she didn't need to wear her kunoichi outfit. In the end she decided to just wear a black miniskirt and a white collared shirt with some soft purple colored flower design on it; along with her opened toed shoes. Ino passed near the mirror and stopped to check that she had everything on her to complete her look. "You look great today ino…How do you do it?" She asked herself before sighing heavily. '_What's the point of looking great everyday if it' you don't have someone to WOW or someone to notice you.' _She thought. She grew tired of her whining and headed toward the door. "Have a nice day at work today Hun." her father told her. "I will." she responded in an almost annoyed tone. "I mean I will try. Okay." she said with a smile. She ran out the door.

"Hopefully the shop will be busy today." she nodded in her head.

"I wonder who will stop by my little shop today. I just hope it isn't someone like kiba, he and that dog just make a mess out of everything." Ino whispered to herself as she skipped to work. When ino got there she opened the front door to the shop, walked in and began her regular routine. The shop indeed got busy and multiple customers came and went. Mid into the day an unexpected customer arrived.

"Hey Ino!" Naruto said loudly and enthusiastically.

"Oh. Hi Naruto. What brings you here?"

"I'm just looking for some white tulips for kakashi-sensai."

"Oh I see." She lead him to a bunch of white tulips. "Are these the ones he likes?"

"You bet." he said and smiled widely. He proceeded to where ino was and took 3 tulips.

"That'll be 10 dollars." she said happily.

"Wha-! That's a rip off." he yelled!

"These tulips come all the way from the land of earth… NARUTO." she said almost scolding him.

"Ha-ha. Fair enough." he said laughing.

"Thanks for the flowers Ino."He said as they waved goodbye.

It was sad to her that the highlight of her day was scolding Naruto about flowers that had come from another nation. She began to think about that incident with gaara yesterday, she blushed almost instantly at the thought of him. _'__I never noticed but… Gaara… he's just so… attractive in a way.' _She put her headphones on and began to distract herself, to pass the time. Two hours and a half later, no one had come in and it was almost time to close the shop. Ino started to think about the past, her adventures and all her aid as a medic ninja. She really missed those times when she was part of a team. It had been 2 years since Asuma's death, which she missed dearly because he use to come in and buy flowers for kurenai and she would tease him about it, and to top everything off both her team mates didn't have time to hang-out anymore since they were always on missions or teaching lectures to the young ninja of the leaf. She felt really sad just thinking about the fact that none one ever came to visit her anymore. She put a song on play and closed her eyes. Without ino realizing, someone came in after she had closed her eyes. Gaara walked in and completely noticed her eyes were closed but was mumbling some of the lyrics of the song. He was a bit shocked at the fact that not only was she good at singing but the lyrics she was singing are really moving. Ino opened her eyes and completely blushes when she saw Gaara standing in front of her. She took her headphones off and tried her best to not look completely foolish, although he already caught her singing, so it couldn't get any worse right?

"G-G-Gaara-sama." she said, stuttering in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry I was so distracted with my music…and forgot about the shop." Tilting her head with a sad smile.

Gaara shook his head "No...I'm sorry, I disturbed you.", there was a bit of silence. It shocked ino that he was also blushing a bit and looking away from her.

"So… can I help you with anything today Ga-"

"That's a very beautiful song you were singing …ino." he interrupted.

She blushed even redder and paused for a sec. "It's called outside looking in by Jordan Pruitt." ino said with a smile.

"W-want to listen to it?" Ino asked while blushing and looking slightly away.

"Um…" Gaara responded while getting redder.

She turned back to him. "Come sit next to me." and gave a sincere smile.

He nodded and went behind the counter to sit next to her.

He placed his gourd next to his seat and sat in the stool next to her. "Here." She handed him the headphones. To her surprise, Gaara handed one of the headphones back to her wanting her to listen to the song with him. "Here." he said and smiled as he closed his eyes. Ino started the song. She didn't really listen to the song, she was constantly looking at Gaara with intrigue. Her heart began to beat faster. She couldn't help herself from looking away from him because for the first time she was getting to know the real Gaara, and not the gaara the people portrayed as a monster. Before she could return to looking at him the song was over.

"That was really…soothing." Gaara whispered.

"Really? ... I hope you liked it." Ino responded blushing redder than the sakura tree outside her shop.

A quiet silence happened for a moment as they gazed into each others eyes.

"So… Gaara. Did you want to get something from the flower shop today?" Ino hoped that gaara would say that he was there to keep her company it was after all a cold and lonely night.

"No… I just happened to be near…and" he paused for sec.

"Thank you for your hospitality… I have to get going now." gaara silently said.

At this point ino didn't know what to do, she didn't want him to leave because she would be lonely

"W-wait gaara." He turned.

"Thanks… for keeping me company." she responded with a cute smile.

He nodded with that same blank expression on his face that he always has and leaves the shop. '_I wonder if gaara feels the same way I do.' _Ino thought to herself. _'__If he… does fell this way… I can imagine how hard it must be on him.' _She paused for a moment thinking she could do for him_._ "I know! I'll give something to him next time I see him!" Ino yelled out in joy. She grabbed her keys and walked out the store to lock it. As she walked home she thought about gaara and how he's been misunderstood his whole life. "Hm…" she pondered. She was putting way to much thinking into this and needed to relax.

Ino stopped when she reached the front door and remembered the horrifying dreams she has been getting lately. She let out a small sigh and continued to enter her house.

"Hey, Piglet!" Her dad yelled across the living room.

"Daaaddddd." she said in a whining tone. "You know I don't like being called that."

"Aww... But you're my little piglet, sweetheart." he confirmed smiling.

Upon seeing his daughter smile, Inoichi knew something happened to his precious daughter. "So… how was work today, Hun? …anything interesting happened?" he asked.

"Hm… you can say that… I guess." ino said smiling.

"Care to share with me?" he asked again.

"Oh no… it's my little secret." she grinned.

"Ah… I see where this is going."

"Oh you do?" she asked still smiling.

Inoichi stood up and walked toward his daughter giving her a hug. "When did you grow up so fast my little piglet?" he asked, but both of them already knew the answer.

"Good night dad."

"Good night pumpkin." he confirmed.

Ino ran up stairs to her room and quickly closed the door behind her. She undressed quickly, took a shower and put on an oversized shirt that fell to her thighs and brushed her hair making sure there weren't any knots. Before she went to bed she looked out of the window and stared into the starry night and to her surprise saw a shooting star. Ino was not a person of superstition but she might of as well try it anyway. She closed her eyes and clapped both her hands together, when she was done, she hopped into her bed and fell asleep.


	2. The Hills

**Ok so this is my very first fan fiction story! I'm very excited to have everyone or anyone read my story and review it! Im recently a fan of Gaaino. I don't really think there's any female ninja in the anime who I'd like him paired up with other than ino. Anyways, i wont keep you long read and enjoy : ). Sorry if I didn't put it on the first chapter I'm kinda new to this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or music featured in this story.**

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"Its Sunday today!" Ino screamed in joy. She loved Sunday because it meant that she didn't have to go to work. Ino thought that today would be a good day to visit the hills. Luck was obviously on her side. She didn't have any nightmares this past night. This was obviously a good sign. She got up from bed and felt full of life, something she been lacking lately.

_'I wonder what I should wear today.'_ She thought. When she opened her closet, her eyes widened in surprise, she never noticed how her closet was packed of clothes she didn't wear. It was really something that caught her eyes because she always shopped for the things she wanted and now that she was looking for clothes to wear, she didn't know where to start. Well this was certainly was not going to stop Ino Yamanaka (the most fashionable and reasonable person of her clan) from dressing the way she wanted. She began rummaging through her things trying to find the perfect attire to wear.

"Ew..." "No..." "Never..." "What..." "Hm..." "Eh" She kept looking in the mirror and seeing how things fit her. She was just going on a casual walk to the hills to relax. Yet she couldn't find a single thing to wear that made her feel comfortable but still look really good.

"Not bad" she finally said. She was satisfied with what she was wearing; she had a sky blue long sleeved V neck shirt, white loose mini skirt, yellow sandals, and many arm accessories. She tied her hair in a ponytail with a purple scrunchie with many mini plastic flower stuck to it this time; and a purple hair clip for her bangs leaving her right eye cover (as usual). She dashed out the door and headed toward the main gate. As she was walking on the streets she saw one of her good friends.

"Hey shikamaru!" she screamed as the boy looked back to see who was calling his name, though he knew only one person who shrieked his name like that. Ino.

"Oh hey Ino." He replied, she noticed his tone was off some how.

"Whats wrong shikamaru?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

"The hokage has me on some guard duty"

"why" She asked.

"She wants me to keep an eye on the sand siblings, to make sure they don't get into trouble"

Ino began to giggle "Isn't that more like babysitting?"

"Yea yea yea. Whatever. This whole thing is such a drag"

She then remembered that she had been seeing the siblings youngest brother, Gaara.

"Gaara." She mumbled out softly.

"What?" shikamaru questioned.

"Oh nothing... Listen I have to get going, its a free day for me and I want to spend it at the hills." She let out a giggle.

"Oh... umm, okay." he didn't seem to care. He turned around and began to walk slowly to his next destination.

"Oh, and shikamaru..."

He turned around to look at her before he continued walking. "Hmm?"

"Try not to flirt with her too much" She winked.

"Wha-?"

"Bye" she responded quickly and left before he rejected the feelings he had for temari.

Ino knew that shikamaru had a thing for the sand siblings oldest sister, Tamari. She remembered about four ears ago when they were sent on a mission to assist the sand sibs. in getting a student back from some criminals. Shikamaru saved tamari from a wind user ninja and they began talking some what close, Almost as if they were dating or something. Even before that they always seem to share the same kind of aura when they are near each other.

_'Ugh. Even shikamaru is beating me at love and romance, even though his IQ is about 200 , hes the most laziest person on the surface of the earth.' _She thought to herself. She couldn't stand being alone but she also knew she didn't want to date some jerk of the streets. She wanted someone genuine who got the whole picture of a relationship or at least tried to get it.

It was about 5 minutes before she reached the main gate. She couldn't help to think about the reason for the sand siblings presence in konoha. Well what ever it was, it wasn't any of her concern. Right? She was a bit worried that perhaps something bad was happening to them more specifically gaara, but quickly eliminated that thought from her mind. She was glad she was going to the hills (located at the outskirts of town) it was a place of peace and comfort where no one could disturb her.

She was so lucky that today was so beautiful outside. The warm breeze, the field was so gentle and calm. Best of all, she could take a nap on the clean soft grass and let all her worries go. As she sat on her favorite spot, she starred at the crystal clear lake that sat calmly at the bay. It was amazing and tranquil. She closed her eye and immediately fell into a daze sleep. It was a good thing that ino was a light sleeper and any kind of noise would awaken her from her slumber. Two undisturbed hours passed until ino felt the warm breeze push against her skin. She let out a yawn. _'How can something so peaceful come to an end.' _She decided to stay a bit longer to savor the moment. It wasn't something she got to do often. Hardly anyone would call her vacation a vacation, what with all the work she had to do.

A noise suddenly occurred close to the forest behind her and of course ino's attention was caught. Her eyes widened in surprise. What was **HE **doing here? Of all places. Surprisingly she dint seem to mind him.

"Gaara-sama?..." She began.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to disturb you in your time of peace." He responded

She blinked a couple of times before she mumbled out something.

"Well you didn't disturb me... but since your here..." She steadily got up from where she was sitting and calmly ran towards his position,

Gaara's eyes widened when he saw the young teenage girl grab his arm and pull it lightly.

"you can stay with me and keep me company." she finished, while closing her eyes and smiling as best as she could.

This was a nerve wrecker for him, never had anyone approached him in such a sweet way, wanting him to keep them company.

"Uh..." was all he could come up with.

"Oh. Come on. Gaara-kun." she said eagerly. She didn't wait for him to respond and dragged his indecisive body to were she was sitting just a few seconds ago.

She sat back down pulling gaara down beside her. It seemed so quiet, she had to strike a conversation to break the awkward silence.

"You know Gaara-kun... I love coming her when I don't have to work. Its so calm and peaceful. The air fills the land with such contempt and it's a magnificent view to see when your in konoha."

Gaara nodded in agreement. "All the times that I have been in konoha, I've never been so relaxed and calm. Actually I don't think that I have ever been in such a peaceful terrain like this."

They switched when gaara began gazing into the lake and ino starred at him trying to understand him more. She looked at the ground and saw a small yellow sunflower. She plucked it from the ground and starred at it for a few seconds. What she was about to do, was something no one in their right mind would do. She placed the flower above gaara's right ear. When he turned around to look at her she was smiling so lovingly, he knew what she did but didn't want to question her actions. He simple just stared at her with his usual blank expression but quickly gave her a warm smile.

"It looks good on you." she said softly.

"Thanks... but doesn't it look sort of odd on a male?"

"Well, not really. I mean there are certain people who would look totally um... well you know. But it doesn't apply to you." she giggled

He didn't quite understand what she meant. Then noticed that she was starring aimlessly at the lake again. This was his chance to return the favor. He quickly grabs the small sunflower from his ear and place it on hers.

His motion completely caught her of guard as she touched the flower on her ear, then turn to face him.

"It looks better on you than on me." he confirmed before she was able to ask anything.

Ino giggled again. "So gaara. How is suna. I mean the climate and that stuff?" she asked.

A few seconds past before he answered.

"It's not a very interesting place. Its dull with so much sand and wind. So you can imagine."

"Ah."

A few minutes passed before something began puzzling him.

"Hey yamanaka-san... How come your not afraid of me... I mean, I'm pretty sure you've seen and heard stories of me, which maybe be true." He was curious to what she would say. Why would anyone want his company when he was quiet most of the time and didn't spark much interest to the people he knew. Why had she paid attention to him? Why is it that when shes around things don't seem so hard, as if the world stops and finally someone is there to understand him. There is something about her that hes never seen in anyone else. He can tell that she's sad from the inside but she keeps on moving. Like the wind. And why is it that he can detect that sadness. Perhaps because hes felt the same, many and countless times.

"Well you see... I think ill start from the begging. When I was younger all I cared about was how good I looked. I took everything and everyone for granted. I didn't try to understand the feelings of others and just went around prancing around thinking I was all that and thinking I had everything, when in fact the world was slipping through my fingers. But I've learned from my mistakes. I've learned that I'm not like that at all. You can't take life for granted and sometimes it takes a while to figure it out and obstacles may get in the way, but in the end its worth all the trouble. I use to judge naruto because of something that happened in the past, but in reality he is the most hard working person I've ever meet. He surely showed many people including myself, what true determination can bring. I admire him for the resolution he brought to himself. Even if hes a total goof. He's someone I think will change the world." It wasn't exactly the answer to his question but it was leading to it for sure. "In short gaara-sama. I cant judge you without getting to know you first, now can I? And I must say you don't seem nothing like what people say about you. You've been misunderstood just like naruto and people don't want to reach beneath the surface to uncover the truth, and thus believe what others tell them. I don't want to be like that. Even if the rumors are true, there are reasonable explanations for them. Every rose has it's thorns, as do human in theoretical way."

Gaara was taken by her meaningful words. He didn't expect her to be so deep. Like she said he had been mistreated and misunderstood his entire life. No one would dare to talk to him. Yet just like Naruto, she wasn't like the rest of the world. She was unique, something beautiful and courageous. Yamanaka Ino was tender, sympathetic, pleasant, softhearted, and so much more.

"I see... your not like most people."

"Neither are you." she smiled. Ino got up from her spot and grabbed his arm and tried pulling him lightly on his arm again.

"Come lets go take a better look at the lake." She insisted.

He nodded. He still wasn't so open with her but he didn't neglect her either.

As they reached the lake ino took of her sandals off and placed her feet in the lake. She began to kick back and forth playfully. She turned to gaara who was looking at her worriedly.

"what?" She smiled happily.

"Nothing. The lake is just really spectacular."

"Yeah. They say the subterranean lake was formed from the tears of a god long ago. It runs across the entire land of fire, and said to carry deep mysteries within."

"Here." She handed him a pebble.

"Whats this?"

"Throw it as hard as you can above the lake surface and see how many times you can make it skip."

as instructed gaara threw the pebble as hard as he could.

"1...2...3...4...5...6" Ino counted. "Wow. That's a good count. I cant ever seem to be able to pass 3 skips."

He smiled at her and turned around to play this 'water' game. Ino blushed at his actions. God he was so hot, cute, adorable and sweet. How can some like him be feared and hated so much? How could have the world been so cruel to him, had he had a friend when he was younger, he wouldn't of killed so many people, and things might have been different with him growing up.

A couple of hours passed while they talked about other things, when Ino remembered that shikamaru was suppose to keep an eye on all the sand siblings and she didn't want to get gaara in trouble.

"We should be heading back to the village, my friend shikamaru must be going crazy since he is supposed to be guarding you and your siblings." she laughed at the thought of shikamaru babysitting the three siblings.

Gaara nodded in agreement. Ino slipped on her sandals and began walking towards the road (that lead to the village) with gaara. They walked in silence the entire trip. When they reached the entrance of the gates, the sun had gone down. They walked about five minutes in when they needed to say goodbye for the day.

"Thank you so much for keeping me company today, Gaara-sama. I've learned many things from you and I had a blast."

"It was nothing. I also learned a lot of things from our encounter. Thank you, Yamanaka-san"

"You can call me Ino... if you'd like. And anytime." she winked. Ino bowed and then turned to walk toward her house. "Bye." She waved one last time. Gaara then turned and walked to his destination.

Something new began in both their lives, something that they have yet to discover, A hidden mystery that's about to unfold for the worse and for the best.

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**Ok so what did you think for the first chapter? Leave a comment good or bad. If youd like ill post more chapter later and see where that goes. Any ways thanks for reading enjoy the rest of your day. : )**


	3. A Match

**Hello all gaara x ino fans I hope you like this chapter. I really put effort into this one. I wanted to make sure you get a good feel of it. Anyways read and enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or music featured in this story.**

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Ever since that day in the hills Ino saw little of Gaara. For the rest of the following week; Ino only saw gaara once. It was 7:00 pm on Wednesday, when he passed by the shop. He only asked for the time, then he rushed out when she told him. She wish he would have stayed longer but unfortunately he was on a mission (which she did not know the details of) and not a vacation like her. Her nightmares also didn't cease to stop. She was worn out with every single aspect of her life. At least it was Friday, thank god. She was glad because after today some other Yamanaka would be working her family's shop and she had many whole days free for a while.

It was close to closing time, so she managed to turn the radio and tune out of her duties for a while. Apparently, musical industries were in parish since everything that came up was boring and or country. Her musical device had finished recharging by the time she had to close the shop. She proceeded in grabbing it and the stores keys. She was looking at everything one more time when she turned around her eyes widened in disbelief. There, before her lied a wilting purple petunia. This particular flower never wilted. It represented strong, belief, and passionate qualities that ino saw in herself. This was honestly the worst omen she had ever seen (even if she wasn't one to believe in superstition).

_'Poor little thing_' she reflected. Tears glided down her face. Ino fathomed flowers because of their beautiful exterior and deep meaning behind them. When she was closer to the flower she looked down on it, it seemed quite lonely all by itself. She wiped the tears from her face and picked the flower up and started to walk towards the exit. As she was locking the door to the shop an idea popped out into her head. "I know exactly were you should go." She slipped the the flower into her back satchel, and headed toward the training grounds.

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**[Near the training grounds]**

Gaara sat on branch of a tree that was near a little sidewalk that lead to the training grounds. He was thinking about all the things that had occurred in his life. He accidentally killed his mother. His uncle, dad, and villagers held grudges against him and tried to kill him when he had done nothing to them. His nation saw him as a weapon of ultimate defense and power. His siblings were afraid of him. He regretted killing others for the thrill and satisfaction. He was haunted by shikaku and was alone for many years , then was miraculously saved by naruto. Naruto, naruto was extraordinary. He was able to change the opinion that people had on him by just working hard and protecting his loved ones. That is what gave him the strength to move on and become stronger than anyone expected. Naruto, has the power to change everyone around him and befriend them. That's a gift not everyone has. He was glad that naruto was able to convince him that the path he was living was wrong. Now gaara was on the right track to living (although he had a new journey ahead of himself).

He found himself thinking about Yamanaka ino. He was told by shikamaru that Ino was always so charismatic, yet ino would tell you differently. Why was she beginning to be all he can think about. Shes just some kunoichi from the leaf, Right? Wrong. She was more than that. She was-.

His thoughts got interrupted when he heard footsteps near by. It was none other than Yamanaka Ino. What was she doing here late at night? Where was she going? So many questions ran through his head. He quickly got off the branch, curious to the whereabouts of her destination. He managed to conceal himself with the help of the forest. He followed her thoroughly about 5 minutes when she suddenly stopped. They came to an open field. Some sort of training kept walking in till she reached the middle of the grounds. She began to exercise and stretch for a couple of seconds. She must be practicing, well at least that's what he thought.

After she warned up, she took out a kunai from her satchel. She spinned it around in her hand (feeling control of the item in her hand). After a few seconds, she threw the kunai at one of the tall trunks that were in front of her. She did this consecutively 5 more times, to the other trunks. The kunai were lined up in a upward (stair-like) direction.

At this point gaara did not know where her intentions were going.

Ino stood still for 10 seconds, breathing calmly. After dashing steadily toward the kunai stairs. She then leaped on to the first kunai, then the next one and so on and so on.

Gaara understood now, she was using using the kunai as some sort of staircase. At the final kunai, she stood on one leg and quickly hopped high into the air. It was a good chakra technique that she had used to get that kind of velocity into the air. Once she reached the peak of her destination, she clapped both her hands and began forming hand seals. "Ninja Art: Illuminating Flower Affinity." She shouted. Blue fragments from the ground lifted into the air; rapidly they reached ino, circling and spinning around her. The blue fragments then revealed themselves to be violet colored flower pedals. Ino narrowed her eyes on the ground and so she glided down with all the flower pedals following behind.

Gaara's eyes were glued to the whole display. They widened even wider when he saw her spinning and twirling down from the sky (with the flowers following and spinning around her). It was a magnificent sight to behold.

She finally landed on both her feet and lifted both her hands in the air. The flowers hit the ground hard (had anyone been underneath them it would have caused many cuts on their entire body) only to re-bounce back up to form a huge heart shaped image in Ino's background. "Ta-dah." She said cheerfully.

"So...what did you think? Gaara-sama." She asked , looking in the direction he was hiding.

**BUSTED**. How did she know where he was hidden? Oh well there was no point in hiding anymore was there. The instant he revealed himself a smiled formed from her lips. He wasn't far away either.

"It was mesmerizing." He confirmed.

"Y-you really think so?" she asked, she instantly blushed at his response (Wow, when did she turn into Hinata). Gaara nodded to confirm her question,

"You know... I've been practicing that jutsu for quite some time. Try after try I have failed to improve, Except now." "Maybe having you here gave me confidence." _'Failing wasn't an option; not with gaara watching me, expecting a big bang'._

Gaara was glad to hear that because of his presence she hadn't messed up her jutsu.

"Oh hey want to have a practice match. Gaara-sama."

"You mean like sparring." Ino nodded. "Well I-" Ino instantly ran to him before he could finish his sentence. She hugged his arm and started to pull it gently.

"Please gaara-sama. I promise I wont hurt you. And if I do... well I'm a medic ninja." she winked. (Who was she kidding. She can't even land a decent hit on shikamaru (and he doesn't even try to doge) yet alone Sabaku No Gaara. In any case he would probably end up hurting her, if that came to happen... well she would probably enjoy it). It was obvious that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

_'Whats with this girl'_ He thought. Wasn't she afraid that something bad might go wrong? Didn't she know how powerful he is? But then again he has also has gotten to know her character pretty well. She would force anyone to do what she wanted by gently pulling their arm then smiling beautifully to catch her pray, like a game of seduction.

She pulled him into the middle of the training field. "Kay. You stay here." She let go of his arm and headed about 15 feet south.

"When ever your ready." he announced. He knew he wasn't going to hurt her (he knew she probably knew that fact too), His ultimate sand defense was all he needed.

Ino on the other was so excited about this match that was about to take place. Spending time with gaara was the best thing that could have happened to anyone. I mean he might be feared by everyone else, but to ino he was like, no, he was a friend. Ever since their last encounter on the hills, she has been yearning to spend more time with him. There something different, the way he looked, talked, walked, everything. She had this peculiar feeling for him. She has never felt before, and she wanted to find out what it was.

"Ready. Set. Go!" she screamed in joy. She picked up a twig she found on the ground and threw it at him (Of course a twig wouldn't do any harm. That's why she infused some of her wind nature chakra into the twig to make it more piercing). The twig flew swiftly through the air as it reached gaara. Gaara's sand quickly escaped his gourd and caught the twig.

"Hmp. Just as I thought." She smirked as she placed some of her loose bangs behind her ear.

"Oh wait." she remembered. "Let me play some music." she skipped happily over to one of the small tree trunks on the field and placed her musical device on it. She began scrolling for a good song to play. One which gaara wouldn't find too girly. "Oh this one." She smirked at the selection she choose.

**[# What can I say by dead by april (no screaming ver.) begins to play]**

She skipped back to her previous position, with her long golden locks gently floating behind.

"Okay. Lets do this." she smiled as she started performing a sequence of cartwheels and back-flips. She was pretty fast and this seemed to surprise gaara. She formed a radius around gaara.

Gaara on the other-hand stayed firm. He just kept a watchful eye on her. She wasn't going to be sneaky as she thought if he stayed conscience of his surrounding. Although he couldn't stop looking at her even if he wanted to. The way her body looked in synch with her flexible moves, and with her lovely hair gently following behind. Wait did he just say lovely? He began to blush when he quickly shook those thoughts from his wasn't the time to be praising her, it was a practice battle.

Ino leaped into the air, right above gaara. She used her heel to try and land a hit on his head. The sand quickly spread all over the top of his head, guarding him and blocking her kick. She re bounced off of his sand and landed a couple of inches in front of him.

"Your a fun opponent." This was the first time she's ever had sparring with a male opponent and his sand sure did make things interesting. Once again she dashed at him throwing kicks and punches, which gaara's sand successfully shielded him.

Ino began breathing harder and harder, finally pulling away. She breathed in deeply and sighed heavily. "Well it seems that regular attacks just wont work on you. Your even better than I thought you were." She winked at him causing a small blush on his face. She had to do something to break down that sand of his. Wait! What was she thinking this was a practice battle, Why in the world was she getting so into it? She reached into her satchel to see what items she had left. Apparently she used up all she ninja weapons when she did her little jutsu technique a while ago; because when she reached in all she felt was the flower she took from the shop earlier. She took out the flower remembering what she was going to do with it. She slipped it back in her satchel and made a plan to get passed through gaara's ultimate defense. She could probably make use of that tree that was near gaara. She quickly dashed to a huge tree that was next to him, gaara didn't know what she was up to but had the feeling he was about to find out. She infused her her feet with chakra to run up the tree. She was so ready to bounce to the branch when all of a sudden her worst nightmare came to true. A new song began to play on her device. She knew the beginning of the beat so well. Crap. She forgot to put the other song on loop and now her life would be ruined.

**[#Can you feel the love tonight: lion king ver. Begins to play]**

It couldn't play, not now. Gaara would surely think poorly of her. She was so uneasy about this that when she reached the branch she lost her balance and plunged toward the ground. She closed her eyes. This was it. She was going to hit the ground and be a laughing stock for him.

Suddenly she felt two things. One, she wasn't on the ground. Two, she was being held by two arms.

"Can you feel the love tonight..." New song on her device sang. When she open her eyes, she was starring into those charming jade orbs of his. Their faces only inches apart. For a moment her vision borrowed his. As if timed stopped for them once more. She noticed he was looking at her with concern and that's when she realized that she was in his arms. She was so anxious and alarmed. She was in Sabaku No Gaara's arms! OMG. He saved her! She couldn't get him out of her mind. She turned redder than a cherry blossom and she wasn't going to turn around to look at him so he could read her like a book. Even if she was jittery from the excitement, She needed to calm down. She wish she could stay like this forever. Wait! What was she saying, I mean he is very attractive and all but she was... well, Ino. Could she ever measure up to his standards? How does gaara feel about this?

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Gaara asked worriedly. What was up with him? Its like if he was someone new. Caring for others wasn't something he did often. It was Ino. When she was around, she made him realize things about himself that he didn't even know.

"Y-yes." She confirmed timidly. She finally climbed of his arms. "Thank you for saving me from a terrible landing, I'm so very grateful ." She bowed in respect.

"It was nothing. But you should be more careful next time."

She nodded in agreement then ran to where her device was. Stupid dreadful thing. '_It was all your fault. Ugh. You had to skip to this love song. Now gaara thinks I'm clumsy'_ she sighed.

Gaara looked up to the sky for a moment. It was getting pretty late. Maybe he should walk her home. "Hey, Yama-... Ino?" He remembered that she gave him permission to call her by her first name.

"Yes? Gaara-sama."

"Its. Getting pretty late. Shall we get going?"

"Oh. Sure"

They began to walk back to the village. It was actually so awkward, all she thought about was how close their faces were. It was really wonderful. But then why did she feel like she was going to throw-up. She wished he would say something. She didn't praise silence.

"Listen. I Didn't mean to slip on that branch and."

"It's okay. You don't have to explain." He interrupted. "I'm glad you weren't hurt." He then turned around and smiled at her. It was the most heart warming smile she'd ever seen from him.

"Yeah. Thanks again, I probably would have broken something if it wasn't for you." She began to blush again at the thought of being held in gaara's arms.

"Don't mention it."

They finally reached the point when they need to part ways.

She was about to bid him farewell when he totally asked an unexpected question.

"Can I walk you home?" He looked down on her. He was so hypnotizing, she would be gasping for air he got any nearer.

"Alright." She actually wasn't as surprised that he asked that question, he was indeed warming up to her.

"Hey, Ino?" There was something puzzling him. He needed to know a couple of answers from her.

"Yes, Gaara?"

"I wanted to know why you were training this late at night." Way to ask so directly.

"Well. Although I'm on vacation. I think I still owe myself some training."

"Why is that?"

It went silent for a couple of minutes before she answered him.

" Well. I'm... weak." There wasn't any other way she could say she sucked in combat. "Between all the leaf kunoichi, I'm ranked at the bottom of the list." She wasn't to happy admitting that she held no high position on a list of all the kunoichi in her village. Even sakura had surpassed her. It was so shameful being weak and most of all being marked as one.

"I'm sure that's not true." She questioned.

"Well it is. All I can do is use mind property jutsus, which only last for a couple of seconds."

"That sounds pretty strong and it could come to good use." He comforted.

"They aren't that great." Then she rejoiced. "That's why I love using flowers as a tool. They are very useful and contain poison that can injure an opponent severely."

Speaking of flowers, Now was probably a good time to give gaara his gift. She took the flower from her satchel and held it up to him.

"Here." She looked away when she said it, Here face might of turned purple from her bashfulness if she looked at him while she gave it to him.

"A flower?" Gaara was curious to why she handed him this flower.

"It's a gift... for saving me earlier."

"**Liar! You were going to give it to him as a present before he even saved you!"** Shouted inner Ino.

When he reached and touched the flower something happened. He saw himself (when he was a young kid), there was also another person there. A young girl, with short blond hair. She was holding a flower up to his younger-self, which he promptly grabbed from her. It was a coincidence that both right now and the implied image seemed the same. It was like a repressed memory. He didn't know what it meant but he had a felling he would find out sooner or later.

"Thank you for this gift then." He looked at the flower thoroughly as he spaced out for a moment. He was amazed with her. No one has ever given him a gift, except the teddy bear that his mother gave him before she died. He didn't believe that he would ever receive such kindness ever again, especially from a citizen from another nation. Was this what it felt like to be noticed? Ino's affections were true after all, he could tell.

After, the trip went in silence until they reached a big house that was decorated with many outdoor plants & flowers. This must have been her house. It was really quaint and simple.

"Thanks for your lovely company and for walking me home." She smiled half heatedly. Drat. She didn't want to say good-bye to him. Not after a such a magnificent night! She looked through her satchel for the house keys. She looked at him one more time before she opened the door to her house. What she did next, was probably the newest highlight of her life.

She leaned in closer to his face and caught him off guard by giving him a kiss on the cheek. When her lips touched his skin she got some kind of image. It was her when she was a little. She was kissing a boy. He looked like... No. He was gaara! She recognized those Jade colored eyes and the dark rings around his eyes anywhere. It was weird. Somehow it seemed familiar. But she couldn't tell when she did it. She then withdrew from the kiss. She only wished she could stay like that for another couple of seconds but that would have been pushing it.

When Ino reached to kiss gaara, his eyes widened. That's when his heart started to beat quicker. What was this sensation? It felt so warm and kind. It was if a whole new world opened right in front of him. He loved this feeling, It was something new and spontaneous. He could feel his cheeks burning inside. The moment she pulled away, this new feeling he was enjoying vanished. She said her good night and smiled at him. He touched the cheek where her wonderfully formed lips had synced with his heart. "Good night, Yamanaka Ino." He said happily as he made his way back to his dwelling.

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**Okay so there are my first three chapters! Sorry if you don't like the flower thing I really have no clue about them myself, lol. Anyway Hope you enjoyed and look forward to what I bring up next! Review / comment. Thanks~ : )**


	4. Water and Sand

**Okay the 4th chapter is up now. R&R. I hope you enjoy this chapter too. Special thanks to everyone who's read my other chapters so far! Oh btw this chapter takes place from the previous chapter. Anyways enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own naruto (I wonder how many times I be writing this little statement, lol)**

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Ino closed the door behind her and leaned on it while slowly sliding downward. She was really delighted with what just happened. She kissed gaara. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. She liked him, that wasn't any big secret to her. But what if gaara didn't feel the same way. She might of drove him away tonight. _'Great Ino. Now he's never going to want to talk to us again.' _She thought as she pulled her hair slightly for her dumb actions. She got up and ran upstairs to her room. She quickly dropped on the bed and began to think harder. Maybe she could apologize to him. She could probably convince him not to the wrong idea. Urgh. Why did she have to go and kiss him. They were already having a good time before she had to go and ruin it twice. But then again when she kissed him, he didn't push her away. Did that mean he liked it, Yeah right he was probably going nuts. He probably wished he was anywhere else but there with her. Man. She really wished she'd think things more clearly. _'I wonder what gaara is doing now.'_ He probably was going crazy because, unlike her, he probably didn't feel the same way. She sighed. She grabbed a towel from the top of her wardrobe and headed to the bathroom.

XxXxXxX

**[Konoha's Leaf Resort/ Gaara's temp. home] **

Gaara was walking through the corridors of the resort trying to get to his room. He was thinking about the kiss that miss yamanaka gave him. It was something unimaginable to him. He never thought that she would show so much affection. His cheeks were still warm. For some reason tho he didn't want his brother and sister to find out. They would never let him live in peace if they were to find out any of the events that took place tonight. When he reached the room, he could already hear the squealing in the room. There was nothing more painful than being in the middle of one of tamari and kankuro's feuds. They usually had a quarrel about anything and everything, and he didn't want to deal with it today (well he never wanted to deal with it but today was more special). When he turned the knob and open the door, a pillow cushion flew across the room and hit the wall next to gaara. Silence overwhelmed the room when both his siblings saw who came through the door.

"Welcome back Gaara." Kankuro began. He knew gaara very well to know he wasn't in the mood for their shenanigans.

"What is it this time?" Gaara folded his arms and stared at them with his usual blank expression.

"Well tam-..."He was interrupted when tamari aggravatingly threw another cushion at kankuro causing him to fall on the floor.

"Its nothing gaara. You don't have to worry about our little discussion." She said nervously.

Kankuro got up and pointed at tamari. "She is going on a date with that shadow-boy chūnin. She says that they're just friends but everyone can tell that there is something more than just friendship there."

"There is nothing more than just friendship there." Tamari's face began getting red from irritation and embarrassment.

"It's as plain on your face. You like him and are thinking of mingling with him." Kankuro started. "I really don't see why your so upset. It's a good thing that you can find a boy, even if hes from another nation. Although, he is about 4 years younger than you."

"Shut up kankuro! Me and shikamaru are just going for some ramen tomorrow. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less." She was so tired of having to explain her relationship with Nara.

"Right." Kankuro said in a sarcastic tone.

Tamari would have been infuriated if this kept on. She triumphal smirked as she looked to turn the tables around. "Well at least someone invited me out for a night. Who has ever invited you out to any place kankuro?" She was rejoicing on the inside. "Oh that's right. No one. Girls flea at the mere sight of you. But who can blame them when you face is covered with make-up. By the way. You can totally borrow my lip-gloss tomorrow." She teased.

Gaara hated having the hear their meaningless arguments and wished he was gone from here. Kankuro, on the other hand knew what she was doing. "So you do admit that your going on a date. Well I'm glad you found someone with more brains than your own."

"Well... even if it was a date, which It is not, at least its with someone with skin and flesh, and not made out wood and yarn!" She hit his nerve spot. Understanding puppet mastery was something that only a person like him would get. Who did she think she was.

"HEY! First of all, I would never date my puppets. Secondly, I am going to go on a date with someone. Once I ask her." He began to blush a bit. Gaara and tamari exchanged a what!-is-he-serious-look. Then looked back to kankuro.

"Well? Who?" Tamari asked.

"Well. I've sort of liked her for a while now." He began. "She actually a friend of your boyfriend."

Tamari rolled her eyes. She didn't want to argue with him anymore.

"It's that girl from the flower shop." He stated.

Gaara's attention was suddenly caught. There was no possible way he meant ino, is there?

"Yamanaka Ino." Kankuro concluded.

"Wow. I think she way out of your league kankuro." Tamari winked. "Besides, shikamaru told me she hasn't been feeling depressed lately. So... I find it hard to believe that she would go out with you. I know! How about you ask one of the suna girls out?"

"Hell no! Suna woman are... just so... plain Jane. Besides, Ino is like one of the hottest woman in konoha." He continued.

Gaara would of punched kankuro for his brainless remark on her, ino was so much more than just that. Although he couldn't really blame him since what he said is half true. Ino was indeed very appealing but that wasn't all she was. At least not to gaara. Also, he could see why he'd want to date ino. Suna didn't have any interesting woman. Of coarse, he didn't think that they were ugly. It's just that ino was probably the first woman he noticed who was different. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

"Hey gaara what do you think? Should I ask her out?"

Why did kankuro have to ask of his onion? Of course he shouldn't ask her out. Kankuro would never have a chance with Ino. She was too tender and sweet, and kankuro's personality was rough and sarcastic. Even if she did agree, gaara would never permit it. She was way too special for someone like his brother. "I think you two should focus on our mission here. We haven't got the time for this." He sounded like such a hypocrite. Here he was spending time with ino and neglecting his duty.

"Oh. About our mission gaara. We have found some coordinates of what can be the felonious ninjas hid-out. Konoha is helping us decipher the exact locations. We should know the locations in 2-3 days." Tamari was wondering if she did the right thing, letting shikamaru help.

"Alright, keep me informed of any information." Both tamari and kankuro nodded as gaara walked to his room. As he closed the door behind him, he unfastened the gourd from his back. He laid on the bed and began staring out the window. When he saw the moon glistening, he remembered **her**. He touched his cheeks once more where she had placed her lips. Ino and kankuro wouldn't probably get each other. Ino was sentimental to him, and kankuro would only anger her with his sarcasm. He closed his eyes for a moment and mentally sighed. Before gazing at the nighty sky again.

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The next morning, Ino was up making breakfast. She was joyous because this time she had a wonderful dream instead of a nightmare. She was still jittery from the current events that happened last night. Gaara was a total gentlemen and best of all, they were slowly getting to know each other.

Once she was done eating, she ran up stairs and refreshed her body with a nice shower. She wanted to go visit some friends, either Sakura or Hinata. She got dressed again after her shower. Once she was fone she opened a window and a gust of cold air blew in. Today was chilly outside she decided to compliment the weather with her cloths. She wore a white V-neck shirt accompanied with a unzipped brown hoodie, a light brown skirt, black closed shoes with white knee-length leg-warmers.

When she looked up at the sky, it looked somewhat gray. She hopped it wouldn't rain because she was going to be traveling pretty far to her friend's houses. She started walking out with a gleeful smile. Hopefully sakura and hinata weren't on any mission, otherwise she wouldn't be able to talk to them.

She finally reached sakura house. Sakura lived a complex apartment. She hated traveling to her house because she had to climb so many stairs. _'Room 105'_ She thought. She knocked on the door three times and waited for someone to respond. A couple of seconds later sakura's mom opened the door.

"Good Morning, Ino."

"Hello, Miss Haruno. Is sakura home?"

"Sorry, but she left on a mission with her team two days ago. She won't be back till the day after tomorrow."

No! Why did sakura have to be gone on a mission! Didn't she know ino needed her now! "Thank you for the information, Miss Haruno." She bowed as she walked away. Well perhaps Hinata would be at home. She Started walking the streets again. She never noticed but when she wasn't with friends, the village felt lonely. Its hard to believe that she had felt this way for more than a month now, ever since her 17th birthday.

When she reached hinata's house the same thing happened. Her father told her that she was away on a mission. OMG. why was everyone away on a mission. Sakura, Hinata, and Tenten were going to be away for more than a day. Vacations sure stink when your the only one enjoying it. Grrr. Now what to do. It was 1:00 am now. The rest of the day would probably be boring unless something interesting occurred. Now she was gloomy and nothing would help her cheer her up.

"Hey Ino." Came two familiar voice.

When looked back she saw her two best guy-friends, shikamaru and choji. She ran to hug them both. "Hey choji, when did you get back?" She asked her puffy friend.

"Yesterday night." He answered.

"That's great!" She screamed joyfully. "So what are you two doing?" She looked at shikamaru.

"Were going to Steak-N-Barbeque, to celebrate choji's successful mission. Want to come?" Shika asked.

"Sure." She nodded.

The trio all headed to the restaurant.

XxXxXxX

**[At Steak-N-Barbeque/ Restaurant]**

They sat at a table near window. The meaty scent and loud buzzing noise of the costumers lingered in the air. It was lucky enough that the area they were sitting was quiet enough for her to speak and hear her team mates.

"So your mission was successful, Hu?" She asked.

"Yea it was a B-rank mission. Me and naruto were able to fend of pretty well." He answered as he skimmed through the menu.

"Naruto?" She couldn't believe it. " I thought naruto was on a mission with sakura, sai, and kakashi-sensai."

"Well, No. Choji and Naruto had this mission since last week." Shikamaru cut in.

"Oh. I guess I been too busy to realize it then." she said. The waiter finally came around to take their order. Choji ordered a large order of barbeque for them. Once he took the order he told them to wait.

"So how is your vacation going Ino?" One of them asked.

"Well its pretty boring... although." She didn't want to tell them anything but unexpectedly it slipped out her mouth. "There were some unexpected events that occurred." She began to blush, thinking about the moments she spent with gaara.

Both shikamaru and choji new exactly that look. It was her I'm-in-love-with-a-someone-look. "Who is it?" shikamaru questioned.

She was flustered and embarrassed when he asked. "I-I-I..." She gulped. "Its none of your business." She affirmed. The waiter came around and brought their food. As soon as he put the meet on the grill choji's eyes popped with joy. Once the meat was tender and juicy both Ino and choji began to dig-in. Shikamaru on the other hand didn't eat anything, which ino noticed immediately.

"Hey, aren't you going to eat?" She asked.

"Uhh. No." He began to blush and looked out the window.

Ino knew exactly what was going on when he blushed. She smirked a bit before questioning him. Since she was sitting besides shikamaru she leaned a bit on top of his shoulder which caught him off guard, as he turned to give her a questionable look.

"So where are you going to take her?" She asked.

"What?" Shikamaru face lit up red. His dumb founded face was so easy to read, ino could tease him forever.

"You know." She winked.

"I don't know what your talking about." He turned back to the window. He hated how ino figured out everything without him or anyone having to tell her. She could could probably be a better strategist if she paid more attention on a battle field like she did with relationships.

Ino giggled a bit and returned to eating. When shikamaru looked back at her, he noticed she looked happier than usual. Actually, he hadn't seen her this happy since her hair grew back after the first chūnin exams. What ever was causing this happiness, he wished it would stay for ever. He liked it when ino smiled it would make him smile.

They spent a few hours at the restaurant chatting and waiting for choji to finally be full. When he finally gave in they headed out. They walked aimlessly as they began talking about their adventures when they were younger. It was about an hour later and the sun began going down. Ino gave them both a hug before she continued to walk to her house. They both waved at her as she reached out of sight.

"She sure seems really happy, doesn't she?" Choji asked.

"So you've noticed too." He confirmed. "Well I hope what ever is making her happy, keeps making her happy." Shikamaru smiled.

XxXxXxX

**[Konoha streets]**

Ino was really glad she meet up with shikamaru and choji. They totally liberated her from her boredom. Plus, it made her fell like part of Ino-Shika-Cho again. A loud thunder sound cut her thoughts off. She looked up at the sky, the clouds were gray and dark blue. Wow. What were the odds that it would rain on her? She felt water drip on her face (She just had to ask).

"Ah!" She shrieked as it began pouring down. She hated it when it rained. Especially when she was wearing heavy like clothes. The rain was so loud she forgot to put her hood on. She closed her eyes and started running and screaming to get out of the rain. She was already soaked nothing could get any worse. coincidentally she bumped into someone and fell on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking were I was going." She said as she steadily got off of the ground. Before she completely got up a hand reached for her. When she it was gaara's hand who reached out to help her, her eyes widened (like always, when hes around).

"I'm sorry gaara. I wasn't looking were I was going and..."

"Its alright." He was wearing regular ninja attire. Then when she looked up at him, he wasn't even wet. Then she noticed there was some kind of sand barrier on top of him, circulating and dropping the water off the edges of the umbrella-like barrier. "Here." He said as he reached out his hand. She contemplated and reached for his hand. He pulled her up from the ground. "You need to dry off quickly as possible." He held out his hand in front of her again, sand escaped in back of him and started swirling around ino. She looked a bit confused then she felt the sand moving throughout her clothes. She felt dry now, his sand somehow absorbed all the water. Once she was all dry, his sand uselessly fell to the ground. "You should stay out of the rain." He finished as he looked out ahead.

She nodded. "Thank you." She felt awkward. He dried her off with his sand so easily and it was quite kinky the way he did it. She stared aimlessly out into the streets, watching the rain drip and splash on the ground. The rain drops splashing on the ground made her ears tingly. _'This isn't that bad, at least I'm with gaara' _She thought. The moment was ruined once the rain stopped. It was about 10 minutes that it lasted. His umbrella-like barrier dissolved back into sand and returned inside gaara's gourd revealing a navy blue sky.

"Thank you so much for your protection Gaara-sama. I'll be going-"

"Can I show you something?" He cut her off.

"Oh...kay." She didn't know what he was up to but was worried when she saw the sand escape his gourd. The sand formed some kind of circular platform. He got on the sand-cloud platform and held his hand out to ino. Ino slowly extended her right arm, as he pulled her up with him. The sand started progressing upward. She quickly grabbed onto the side of his arm, and hugged it tightly.

Gaara looked at ino who had her eyes closed. It was quite alarming to him because he wanted to share something with her, "You have nothing to fear. You wont fall." This caused her to look at him and nod.

When she looked down, she saw the entire lights on village. Wow, they were up so high. Then she looked up at the sky and there she finally saw what he wanted to show her.

A big smile formed on her face as she starred at the stars and the moon. They looked so close and beautiful. "Wow gaara. This is magnificent." Her eyes fully glistening from the gorgeous view.

He looked at her for a moment and gave her a warm smile (although she wasn't noticing), then turned around to gaze at the sky again.

This was one of those time were she felt so warm and happy inside. This view could make even the evilest of villains happy. Each and every star was shinning so bright and beautiful, It felt as if you could reach out and grab them. She was glad she went with him, it was impossible to see the stars from the village. She then saw that she was getting further away from the view, that's when she noticed that the sand was lowering. "Thank you for showing this to me." She smiled at him warmly before looking down again.

They reached the ground and gaara helped ino off. His sand reached back into his gourd and he sealed it with a cork.

"Umm... Gaara?" he turned around to look at her.

"I'd like to show you a place that I've kept a secret. When you have time come by my house and I'll take you there."

"I'm not sure when I'll have time." He was upset when he saw her frown.

"Oh. Well if you do, you know were I live." She smiled and waved before heading to her house. Gaara turned and headed for his apartment suite.

When Ino turned the corner she bumped into someone again. "Oops. Sorry I didn't see you there." She looked up to see who she hit.

"It's okay... Ino." came a voice she recognized faintly. It was none other than kankuro.

"Oh kankuro. Hello." Kankuro blushed a bit before looking at her confidently.

"Hey Ino. Look I was wondering if you'd like to go out to eat or something." She tilted her head a bit before getting it.

"Oh. I'm sorry kankuro-sama, I've just finished eating with some friends. But maybe some other time would be good. Kay?" She knew that **that** wasn't what he meant, but she didn't want to tell him she had a crush on his brother and that's why she didn't want to go out with him.

"Oh. That's fine. Some other time then."

She bowed and ran away from the situation. Phew! That was a close one. He'll find out someday though so why should she hide it. Oh well, she walked home and started thinking of what she was going to do for the next few days.

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**So what did you think so far. I want to start introducing more of the characters from now on, to keep things more interesting. Also I basically have this story finished (in my head) but that easier said than done, of coarse I wont rush it so that I give you guys the full experience of this story and for you to enjoy. Anyways Review/ Comment on the chapter if you'd like. Thanks. Toodles~ o.~ **


	5. A Not So Easy Mission

**Okay, Im so sorry that i havent updated in a while. I haven't forgotten about the story at all but i have been stuck on the different approaches i want to make. Um anyways, I also want to apologize for any character's names i have mispelled in the previous chapters, im not used to writing about the naruto cast so sometimes i might get their names wrong unintentionally. Well that it for now, I hope you enjoy this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: Me=DONT OWN NARUTO.~**

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It was about 10:30 A.M. on when ino woke up. She had stayed a couple of hours late at night listening to music as well as thinking of new things she could do to pass the time. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to spend the next few days of her vacation. She had even forgotten what it was like to be a ninja. When the clock turned twelve she was already down stairs, clean and energetic. She was sitting on her granite kitchen counter-top reading the newspaper. It was a bit inaudible. It was a big house and without her dad making noise, it was creepy being all alone in her house. A few minutes later she heard her doorbell ring. When she finished her crossword puzzle she folded the paper in half and ran to see who came over to visit.

When she opened the door she saw Mr. Lazy himself. Shikamaru. "Hello, Shika. What are you doing here?" She gave him a questionable look.

He put one hand behind his head and began to scratch it in a I-don't-know-how-to-tell-you way. "Tsunade wants you to report for a new assignment."

Ino blinked a couple of times and responded loudly. "What do you mean she wants me to report in for an assignment. I thought I was on vacation?"

"Well you see... It's been a month since you started your vacation, and now its time to get back to your regular life as a ninja." That was cold response even for shikamaru. But he really didn't like telling anything to Ino since he knew her personality well enough to know that she would throw a hissy fit.

"Well do you know what kind of assignment it is?" She asked.

To his surprise she said it quite calmly, he had expected her to destroy the entire village with her anger. "Well all I know is, that it is a one day assignment. Fairly easy if you ask me."

She sighed heavily and let her arms dangle in disappointment. "What time do I have to show up?" She asked.

"By one and make sure you are ready by then."

"But thats only thirty-seven minutes away!" Shikamaru knew that was his cue to bail before things got worse with her.

"Wait! Where do you think you are going!" She yelled. He was out of sight in an instant. There was no use in fighting her obligations. She new her vacation had to come to an end, she only wished it would last; Just enough to relax and really feel problem free of all her worries. She quickly ran back upstairs and into her room. She opened her wardrobe to reveal her usual violet top and bottom piece of ninja gear. She immediately changed. She ran to the steel shed closet in her house. She opened it, revealing many ninja tools. She only need the essentials of kunai and shuriken. She packed light, knowing not much of her assignment, only that it would take about a mere day to complete.

She headed out to the hokage's center building. She was walking on her regular route, when she spotted shikamaru coming out of the convenient store.

She sneaked up behind him. "So you thought you could get away from me?" She whispered in his ear which made him immediately jump up.

"Ino!" He gulped. "I-I-I... didn't see you there." He was having difficulty talking for some reason.

"What? (o.O)." She looked at him with suspicious and then she glanced at a small bag in his hand. A devilish smirk formed on her face. She got up-close to him, their faces only inches away.

Shikamaru got red and turned his face right to keep her at distant as he could. She took him by the arm and (in a way) forced him to walk with her. "Walk me to the hokage's main building, you and I have to talk about things." She winked.

They were about half way there. To shikamaru it was probably to most dreaded and troubles some walk he had ever been with ino or any woman by that matter. He only wished there was a way to make her stop thinking, of what was obvious she was thinking.

"So..." She started, she looked down into the ground as they walked along the streets. "How did the... date go." She had let go of his arm at this point, she didn't want people to get the wrong idea about them.

"It wasn't exactly a date. I just asked temari to some ramen." He didn't reveal much detail of the situation but it wasn't that hard for ino to figure out things.

"Well it must of not gone well, if you bought her a compensating gift." She added.

"Oh. This isn't for her. I need this for tomorrow." He declared.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh its a mission that I, as well as you, have to help on."

"And what kind of mission is it?" She questioned.

"We are helping the sand shinobi with their mission. It is something that the hokage thought would speed up the mission for them." Shikamaru kept on talking about other insignificant details she didn't catch. She on the other hand, was in a trance having said that she would be assisting gaara on his mission. "Hey, Ino? Are you even listening."

"Of coarse. I wouldn't be so rude as to keep you talking while I don't listen shika." She giggled.

"Right." He sighed. Sometimes ino was such an airhead, but those qualities were what made her interesting.

"So what are the details on the mission for tomorrow?"

"Don't know, the hokage hasn't sparred much detail of it." He would of never guessed that ino would ever be interested in mission details. Perhaps because their was something or someone there that made her act differently. He would just have to wait and find out for himself. "Well we're here." He stated, as they both stared into the Tsunade's domain.

"Well thanks for walking with me. It sure going to be a refreshment for me. It almost feels like I wont know what to do on the mission." She admitted.

"Don't sweat it. You got an easy assignment this time." He comforted her as much as he could.

"You're right. This should be fun... I guess." She started walking up the spiral stairs of the building.

"You'll do great. Uh. Good Luck." He waved at her from the bottom and he then started walking away.

There was one thing that ino hated most about the hokages building and that was that she had to climb all these stairs. When ino reached the corridors of the halls, she was greeted by many people she knew. They were (in a way) part of her family. She finally arrived to a tall wooden door with two symbols, the hokage symbol and fire nation symbol on either side. She knocked on the door 4 times before she heard the hokages voice from the other side.

"Enter." Tsunade's loud voice rang.

Ino opened the door and entered the room. She knew the limit of tsunades temper very well. To be very honest she didn't care about tsunades tempter, she saw it as a competition for some reason.

"I'm here reporting for my assignment, lady hokage." Ino began.

"Oh, Ino! I'm very glad you could make it."

"What is the assignment about?" Ino asked.

"It's a fairly easy task at hand." She handed ino a light pink scroll with a tied red knot. "One of the genin teachers was severely injured, and we need someone to take his spot." A knock came from the door. "Oh, they are here." Ino turned around to look at the students she was looking after. The team comprised of two girls and a boy. "You are to explore the mountain cave just south of the village. Now get moving." Tsunade finished.

Ino eye's twitched when she heard the speculation. She was to babysit some genins. She sighed, well at least it wasn't so bad. She led the team outside of the door and headed of the hokages main building. They were about a street away from the hokages building when ino turned around to give them the official Ino team welcoming.

"Hello, Everyone! I'm Ino Yamanaka your mentor and instructor for the day. I'd like to ask of your name before we proceed on with the mission. Also if you'd like to tell me a little about yourself, well that would be great too." She said cheerfully. "Okay well begin with you." She pointed at one of the girls.

"I'm Akimito Shimuro, and I like spending the day outside exercising my ninja talents." Akimito had black medium-length hair and blue eyes.

"Alright. Now you." She pointed at the next girl.

"I'm Chizuro Eburama, and I, like many other girls, love shopping." Chizuro had light blond curly twin pig tails and soft pink orbs.

"Great! Okay last but not least." She turned to face the little boy in front of her.

"I'm Shinji Surkolchi, and I like going on dangerous missions" Shinji had short red hair and red eyes.

"Well it's very nice meeting you all and I know that we will complete this task with ease. Now lets start this exploration." They started walking towards the south gate of the village. The group was enjoying the conversation and sharing stories of their past experiences. Being the leader of a group made Ino feel old, but it also replenished the old memories of her own team and their past experiences. It was if she was starting over from the beginning.

They were about more than half way there, when things started to get a little interesting.

"So Have you ever been leader of a mission before?" Chizuru asked.

"Of coarse! Many times." Ino replied.

"And how did you fair with them?" Akimito asked.

"Well I cant say that all of them have been 100% success, but thanks to my team, they were completed thoroughly."

"So to be exact, you needed chojo and shiki to complete your assignments." Shinji argued.

"Well in a way I guess that is right." Ino replied.

"I knew it! Males in a group are much more stable and reliant with ninja duties than females." Shinji replied.

"WHAT!" All three girls shouted.

"Yeah well, I don't mind carrying you two [he points at Akimito and chizuru.] on our missions." He arrogantly added.

"We don't need you to carry us anywhere. Besides Ino is in charge and she is a girl." Akimito replied.

"Well, will see how good she really is since chojo and shiki aren't here to help her, Isn't that right?" He looked over at ino who was starting to get a bit red from all the accusations of her power and success on her team. Who did this kid think he was, trying to put her in her place.

"First of all, Its Shikamaru and choji. Second, girls can have the same input when it comes to damage and potential in ninja skill and mastery. And thirdly, I'm more than capable of handling this easy assignment." This was probably one those times were she need to prove things herself, to not only them but herself as well. "Hmph." She snorted like an upset diva.

XxXxXxX

**[Konoha's Leaf Resort/ Gaara's temp. home]**

Temari entered the living room in a informative mood. "Hey you guys? Come out, I have some great news!" She shouted from the room.

"Do we really have to hear how great your date went yesterday." Kankuro argued as he left his room and gaara exited his.

"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" She replied angrily. Both kankuro and gaara were suspicious now.

"What is it temari?" Gaara asked.

"Oh, right... Shikamaru told me that the coordinates for the criminal ninjas hideouts are ready."

"Well lest get going." Kankuro stud up confidently.

"Wait, kankuro. The hokage also gave us some feedback. The coordinates are scattered with in many locations, and looking for them may turn out to be more than a hassle. So... the hokage proposed we wait one more day for some of her ninja to return from their missions, so that they can assist us in ours." All three stood quiet for a moment before temari added her opinion. "I think that its a great plan and it saves us a lot of time, but they need the input of all three of us." She looked at both of them who were puzzled by the decision.

"Well at this point it wont really matter if we wait one more day. What do you think gaara." Kankuro asked.

"I suppose it saves us the trouble of getting duplicate hideouts. (He pauses for a moment). Will take the hokages request."

"Alright. I'll inform them immediately." Temari said as she opened the door to leave her sibs. to think about their plan.

"The situation calls for us to move at a fast pace. We have wasted alot time here, so I believe that we have a good chance of finding our culprit with the help of the leaf shinobi." kankuro was way in over his head, but honestly only them three would be able to complete the mission before the month was over.

Gaara nodded his head in agreement with what kankuro just said. He didn't say many words with that and opened the door to exit the room.

"Where are you going?" Kankuro asked.

"I'll be back later." Gaara pronounced which wasn't the answer to his question but at least it was something.

XxXxXxX

**[Forest on the far south side]**

"Are we there yet?" Chizuru asked ino.

Ino looked up to some of the trees that were covering the giant landscape of the mountain. As they kept on moving the mountain began revealing it self. "Yes, were only a few yards away." When they finally reached the mountain entrance, they decided to to stop for a moment and do a quick briefing on the mission. "Alright guys, It says here to explore the entrance passage way to the mountain. If possible find some Yggdrasil healing herbs for the medic team." Now looking at the instructions, it seemed more convenient that they asked for ino to go lead this team, she new a lot about medical medicine as much as tsunade. This was probably the only thing she had succeeded sakura in from tsunades training. "Okay, so the the medicinal herb looks some what like a regular leaf, only that it differs from the front being green and the back yellow. Okay so does everyone know what they are doing."

"Yes!" All three shouted eagerly.

"Alright then, lets begin!" She lead the three younger ones in the cave.

"its too dark to see anything from here."

"Hm. Let me try something." Akimito said. "Fire style: ignited sparks!" A spark from akimito's hand burst out. She threw it into the cave and it ricochet of the walls and then out the entrance, shooting for the sky and causing a small fireworks display. Everyone then looked at akimito. "My bad." She apologized

They immediately took out their flashlights , once they were in there, any light was shunned. The air felt rather humid and warm. It was a spiky cave. Most of the walls were rough and keen. The floor was wet and they could hear the squishing sound of their feet touching the ground every time they moved. They spent about an hour looking for the Yggdrasil herb, but found nothing of the sort.

Ino sighed. "Oh well, there aren't any healing herbs in this part of the cave. We should head back to the village and give our report." They hadn't necessarily failed the mission, since they were able to complete most of the requirements. "Okay are you guys ready to go."

"Wait! Where is shinji?" Chizuru shouted. All three turned around to seek a glimpse of shinji.

"Okay you two go wait outside. I'll find him and get him out. Now go." Ino commanded. The two girls ran out of the cave as fast as they could. Ino on the otherhand, started yelling for her missing team member. This couldn't happen to her, he wasn't going to ruin her comeback mission. He couldn't be far, this mountain wasn't that big. The passage way then started getting smaller and narrow as she started moving more inward. On her latest call she heard his voice.

"Shiji!" She shouted.

"Ino?... I'm over here." She followed the echoing of his voice till she came upon a large gap on the ground and on the other side was shinji.

"How did you manage to get on the other side?" she asked.

"I don't recall. I seem to be stuck on this edge tho."

"Okay. Do you have any rope with you shinji?"

"Um. Yeah hold on." He took out a lengthy rope from his back pack and tossed one side of the rope to ino. She then took out a kunai and tied the rope to the handle of the kunai.

"Okay move a little to your left." When he moved out of the way, she then infused the some her wind chakra and threw it at the rocky wall causing a piercing. Shinji then tugged on the rope to see if it would hold. When it was conformed he tugged it with both his hands and his feet, he moved from the one end of the rope to the other. For a moment everything seemed to be going well, until the rope tore.

"Ahhhh." He screamed. Fortunately enough he hung on to the rope and bounced on the wall.

"Hang on, I'll pull you up!" Ino shouted. She grabbed the rope and pulled him up with her strength, when his hand came into reach she extended her hand to offer him support.

"Thanks." He said breathing deeply.

"Phew. At least we got you off that cliff edge. Now, What are you doing wondering around by yourself. You could have been seriously hurt." She started scolding.

"I know. But it was all for the cause." shinji took out the Yggdrasil leafs from his pocket.

"What? You actually came by some? That is great, but it was pretty reckless. Never attempt anything like this on your own it only endangers your team."

"Yeah... I wont do anything like that without my team anymore." She picked him up and they started walking out of the cave. This was so exhausting for her, I mean she hadn't been on a physical mission for a month and to be quiet frank, it wasn't so pleasant, especially in an Icky cave. Everything was going easy until the ground start to rumble and shake.

"Whats going on!" Shinji shouted.

"I think that we may have set off a unnatural balance in the mountain." Some of the ceiling started chip off and hit the ground hard.

"Move!." Ino shouted, when one of the sharper ceiling pieces went crashing down in shinjis position. She was able to break it with one of her "_strength kicks_". They both started running for the exit, ino managed to brake all the pieces that tried landing on their heads. When they were finally near the exit, a big chunk of the mountain top crashed down. Her reaction was to get the boy out of the way as fast as possible. She gave him a hard push, enough to move him out of the way. When she opened her eyes she couldn't see anything but the dust and dirt lingered in the air .

"Shinji!" Ino shouted.

"I'm here." He responded.

"Thank goodness your safe." She was really grateful he wasn't harmed, actually she couldn't see if he was harmed or not. "Where are you?"

"I can see the exit to the mountain." Alright, so he was on the other side, which meant she was stuck on the trapped side.

"Are you okay ino?" The boy asked from the other side,

"Yes... Listen shinji, I'm trapped on this side. I'm going to try and find another exit, meanwhile you go outside and wait with the others. Try to look for another entrance and ill meet you their."

"Okay." He responded

This was so perfect, now she was stuck on the side of a mountain cave with out a light. She reached down to the floor and tried to locate for her flashlight. It took her about 5 minutes before she was able to find it. She stood up and started walking into the total darkness of the cave. She was able to manage for what seemed a good 30 min. She really wished she took her musical device with her to pass the time. It was so unfair. Her first assignment in like forever, and she was stuck inside this icky cave. This is what someone would call a misfortune. It was quiet for a while and for a moment it seemed that she was would never get out. Ino remembered that this sort of situation was what ninja had to face all the time. Five min. later the rumbling and shaking began again. This was so unfortunate, since she was exhausted from the last run, so she wasn't ready for more collisions. She started running in a straight path, avoiding much of the collision between the ceiling and the ground. She apparently, was now the one being reckless, not seeing where she was going, she tripped on a rock and stumbled to the ground. She felt some of the chips of the rock hit her head and knew that a huge chunk was about to break and kill her. Her whole life flashed before her eyes, there were still so many things that she hadn't been able to do. She only wished it didn't have to end like this.

"Ultimate sand shower!" She heard a familiar voice. She opened her eyes slowly, she was still on the ground, in one piece. The figure came into close proximity and she then recognized gaara.

"Gaara-sama?" She couldn't believe it, he saved her again.

"Are you alright?" He extended his hand to pick her up.

"Uh, yea..." She took and his hand and he pulled her up. "Thanks." She replied.

The cave wasn't as dim anymore and she could see her clothes, torn and dirty. She sighed mentally. She then looked at him, same old no-expression on his face. She then remembered what shinji said, about her needing a man to save her.

"Well, thanks for saving me. But I didn't need help, especially from a man." She coldly said. Gaara only looked at her with a questionable look. Ino then walked about half and yard before something dropped on her shoulder. It felt gross with many legs, that itself made her get goosebumps.

"AHHHHH~EHHHHH!" She screamed and shrieked. Gaara only looked at her with some sort of amusement, before he walked over and took the spider off of her shoulder and laid on the ground.

"AHHHHHHHH! GET IT OFF ME!" There was a certain fear to her voice.

"There. Its just an insect, nothing to be panicking over." Ino then gave him a stern look.

"Are you serious?! THAT was a the most foul disgusting vile creature that ever walked the plant. Ew ew ew ew ew ew..." This was so the worst mission shes had in forever, it couldn't possibly get any worse. She then heard noises, and to her displeasure, they weren't the noises she would be glad to hear, they both looked up at the ceiling (were the noise was coming from) and saw millions (if not more) insects. Ino's eyes began to get watery at the scene. "Ga-ga-ga-ga-gaa...ra?" He turned to look at her and saw her trembling. "I take back everything I said..." Ino couldn't keep her composure, there bugs were her worst nightmares, I mean she couldnt really stand seeing them, you know? She then fainted and would have fell hard on the ground if gaara hadn't caught her. He needed to find a way out of this mountain, it was hard to tell which way he entered in the first place. Ino still hadn't awaken, and they really needed to get out of this area before this place would begin to shake again. Gaara aligned his gourd horizontally on his back and picked up ino and placed her (in a piggyback position) on top of his gourd and on his back.** (I know that sounds dirty, but I cant really explain it otherwise)**.

Time passed,and once she had awoken from her little dilemma, Ino's eyes fluttered open. She had made no sudden movements or sound, she was quite embarrassed that she had fainted in such a weak occasion. Not only that but now she was being carried by sand boy. It's not that she didn't appreciate it, its just... Gaara was already a top/powerful/excellently skilled ninja and she just showed how immature and frail she was. She sighed loud enough for him to hear. Gaara turned around too see her sinking her face in his shoulder. He figured she was distraught, there was nothing more that could have been wrong with her.

'_Hes pretty physically strong.' _She thought, her arms and legs were dangling around his sides and shoulders as he carried her. She began blushing the usual pink (like always), you know... she wouldn't mind being saved by a guy as long as it was him. He did everything right for a person who (in one point in his life) wouldn't give a load for someones else's life. She started thinking things over again, I mean about gaara and his life. She hadn't realized that the more her thinking progressed the the more arms wrapped close around his neck, she was practically hugging him when she acknowledge it.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was doing this." She unwrapped her arms from his neck and just looked on ahead.

"Why did you do it?" He asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Your arms."

"Oh, I was just thinking of... you." OMG! Wait what did she say? She bluntly admitted her thoughts to him. "I mean... I was thinking of the stories that they had told me about you."

He just '_hmed'_ in response.

She didn't open her mouth and just went along with whatever he would be thinking. They walked about 15 minutes before a burst of light glared in. It was a good thing that they were finally going to get out of this cave/mountain. They had been in there for a while, when the light rays hit her eyes it slightly blinded her. Once she had a clear view of the surrounding she looked around for her team. The only thing that was there was a bag she had gave shinji in the beginning.

"I think I can walk from here." She told gaara.

He nodded and bent down to ground level so she could get off. One of the the things she noticed right away was that her ninja attire was of no good use anymore, this in her case was good news because she was tired of wearing this particular purple ninja attire, it was ugly and made her look fat in many places. The next thing she noticed was that there was a note clipped to her bag. Good enough, it was from her team. It read:

_Dear Ino-sensai, We know that you've had help since that nice sand shinobi told us that he would help us get you out. We are sorry we couldn't stay, but SHINJI was so inpatient to report the mission to the hokage. We know that by now your out of the cave, so you can head back to the village and relax. Love, team 20. _

She crumbled the note and threw it to the ground. So much for team work. She sighed as she picked up her bag. She was about to begin walking when she a sting-pain in her knee that made her squeal. Gaara bent down again to look at the scratch she had, it was obvious she would only injure herself more if he didn't help.

"You should really watch out more." He took a red handkerchief and tightened it up around her knee. She only frowned. "Climb on." He said as he bent down again.

"No its fine. I ca-" She was then cut off by him

"You'll only hurt yourself more if you don't let me help you."

She sighed in defeat. "Okay." Secretly she was really happy that he offered. He was the most generous and gentle person she had ever meet. She climbed on his back again and began that awkward silent walk.

She was curious about one thing tho. "So... how did you know were I was?"

"I was walking threw the forest, and saw a spark of an explosive. I though it was odd to see something like that in such a rendered place." That made sense, akimito did miss her jutsu trick. "Once I found out who it was, the genin asked for my help."

"Oh. Well thanks for helping, I'm in your debt."

When the they walked into the main gates, some people began to stair at them, it was kind of creepy. Ino sunk her face on his shirt. She knew that this would raise suspicion and rumors, although, it wouldn't be that bad. Somehow they survived without someone blurting some witty remark. They came to her flower decorated house, Ino climbed off his back.

"Thank you for your help. And listen... I didn't mean what I said back at the mountain cave. I was just angered of the thought of being less skilled than my fellow ninjas." She wanted to apologize for her earlier actions.

"What exactly do you think of me?" He asked with his curious expression.

Well that wasn't exactly what she wanted to apologize for. "Its not really my place to say." She looked down at the ground, it was no coincidence that she was blushing.

Gaara, on the other hand, put one hand on top of her head, it immediately made her look up. Her heart broke in two when she saw him smiling so sincerely and sweet. Her eyes fully glistening, time (once again) stopped for her. What a cute smile, fit for the cute prince he was. He then leaned in. Ino thought the impossible, the more he came closer the redder she got, perhaps he would return the favor she left him the other day. Gaara got close and whispered in her ear. "Be careful next time." He started walking away and left ino stand there like a statue, clutching her hand in a fist close to her chest.

She opened the door to her house and locked it before collapsing to the floor. Her stomach was a wreck. She _phewed _but wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. She picked herself up and walked up stair to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and undressed. The warm shower was what she needed. She started thinking of what she would wear for tomorrow, her ninja gear was useless._ 'Thats it!' _She suddenly remembered something she had been saving for a special occasion of her returning. It was something that she had made on her own. She was now so siked for tomorrow.

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**Okay, Thats it for chapter 5! This chapter is sort of my filler (if you want to call it that) chapter. The genin team is really irrelivant from this point on. I will have try to post sooner than i can, Also ill probably do a short Q&A thing next chapter because i want to explain exactly how this story is runned and some other things. Anyway review/comment if you'd like and enjoy the rest of your ~ Toodles!**


	6. Something New

**Hi everyone! MagicalTrixs here with a new chapter. Now I know i said i wasn't going to take a nother whole month to post the new chapter but i found it quite difficult to write this whole month, due to some real life things. Also the short Q & A will be at the end, anyways Heres the new chapter. R&R and enjoy. :) **

**Dont own naruto***

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**[Konoha's Leaf Resort/ Gaara's temp. home]**

It was early in the morning and the sand team was up and ready to continue their mission. This mission was of most importance to the Sand Village, they knew that, and they knew that with the help of the leaf village, they would not be wasting time. The team was ready to exit and go the hokages building.

"You know, this is a do or die situation we're in." Temari started. "The success of this mission is more valuable than our own lives."

"We already know that temari." Kankuro stated.

"Once we start, we have to make progress. One of these coordinates (she held out the paper with the locations of the hideouts) is his hideout." Tamari looked thoroughly at all the locations.

"We don't know how the hokage plans to separate her teams, but if we team up with them our chance will be stronger, since we hold even more information that can be essential to them and us." Kankuro added.

"We have less than two weeks at most. The elders expect us to be finished with this by then." Temari finished. Gaara just nodded.

"We should get going now, the meeting is in thirty minutes." Gaara claimed. Kankuro grabbed his puppets from the sofa, temari set her fan on her back, and gaara adjusted his gourd on his back. They opened the door to exit the room and headed towards the hokages central building.

* * *

As they walked through the the streets of Konoha, the sound of silence surrounded the area. To gaara that sound was sanctuary but for the other two, it was beyond annoying; Which raised the question, why were they ninjas if they got inpatient in silence?

"So temari... I bet you are really dying to see shikamaru." Kankuro started.

"WHAT?!" She retorted.

"Yeah... you're defiantly praying to get him on your team, your face is all red just thinking about it."

"HOW DARE YOU!" She shouted.

Gaara mentally rolled his eyes, not this again. It seemed like that was all they have been recently talking about. The noise of his annoying siblings soon silenced as he looked out ahead. Everything seemed some-what different for some reason. He remembered yesterday, how ino affirmed him that she was thinking of him. Well, he has to admit that he is looking forward to seeing her again. She has become a part of his routine for some reason, It's like he feels something for her. I mean, they are are just, what he likes to call, verbally connected. So what is this feeling he has for her when shes around. She is one of the few people who started conversations with him and wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind. She is also a bit hard to read, but then again, he hadn't had much experience with many females to know their mode swings. Some nice things about her? Well she was sweet and polite (with the exception of yesterday) for someone her age. She was also pretty and...

"Gaara? Hell-O? Are you listening?" Kankuro waved a hand in front of him. Darn him, he couldn't even think quietly before being interrupted by them.

He sighed deeply. "What?"

"I said, how do you think the hokage will divide her teams?"

"I have no clue." Gaara answered.

"Hmm... You seem really distracted lately, is everything okay?" Temari asked.

"Aside from you two constantly bickering, everything's fine."

"We are almost there." Temari pointed to a directional sign that read "Hokages Central Building".

Five minutes had passed when they finally arrived. As soon as they stepped into the building, they were greeted by many leaf shinobi and other officials. They were five minutes early and were instructed to wait in a waiting area. Little by little, some of the other teams started arriving. They were able to recognized everyone in the room at first glimpse. As soon as the five minutes passed the messenger came back to the waiting room.

"The hokage is expecting you now." Everyone walked through the beige corridors until they got the hokages office. As they all entered, they were greeted by Shizune and Lady Tsunade. As the hokage looked on she knew there was someone missing because the horizontal line they formed was broken by a gap. The line was coordinated by members on the original teams:

Shino, Hinata, Kiba, Lee, Tenten, Neji, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Choji, **GAP**, Shikamaru, Temari, Gaara, Kankuro. She sighed mentally.

"Where is Ino?" She looked at shikamaru, which to his surprise as well, just shrugged his shoulders.

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_~An hour earlier~_

Ino had just got out of her morning shower, she knew the meeting was starting soon and needed to get ready as quickly as possible. She blow-dried her long blond hair in five minutes. She had shorted her hair a little bit yesterday so that it wasn't extremely long, It became waist length. She also shortened and arranged her long fringe, both her eyes were visible now and her new fringe drifted to the left side (in a side swept fringe style), two long bangs fell and laid gently on both of her checks. She knew she was 17 now, and so, needed to get a knew appearance to look fresh and and hopefully more appealing. Now for the best thing she had been waiting for, her new attire.

[Chelsea by Stefy Rae (BGM)] _Bgm = is the background music that the characters themselves can't hear_

Ino was so glad that her old ninja gear was ruined, there were many flaws in that attire that she never realized. She looked at her clothes that laid gently on her bed, it was so awesome. First of, she put on her light-yellow V-neck shirt, this shirt was amazing because it wasn't big on her and it showed the curves of her torso (her bust, shoulders, waist, and hips). She then Slipped (put on)on a Heliotrope-toned, Pleaded, mini skirt ; this skirt was upper-thigh-length but was neither too short nor too big. Next, she put on some dark-violet-shade knee-high open-toed boots. The best thing about these boots was that they didn't show the outline of her ankles or the rest of her leg, it was 'stuffed' lightly for that special occasion. She also adjusted some black knee pads, yesterdays unexpected mishap still stinged. Looking in the tall mirror, she adjusted everything to her liking. _'Wow I wonder if they will recognize me like this.' _She thought, she was right in a way, she had never worn anything that covered 80% of her body and still made her look fabulous. Now what she was about to do was apply very light make-up, of coarse she didn't need it, but still just a little to lighten her up. She applied a very light foundation and maskara, she added a barely noticeable lilac eyeshadow (No really you could hardly notice she had any on). She had also applied some blush. Finally, she applied her dusty-pinky-peach plumper that made her lips a bit more luscious. Once she looked the mirror again, her appearance literally didn't change much (well duh, she didn't really go heavy with make-up, and honestly, never planned to go further than this). She then looked in the mirror and began playing with her thin blond hair, trying to executing a new hairstyle. She really did appreciate her pony tail but she did change the position of it, she settled on putting it on her right side (not much that it would become a side ponytail, but enough to know it wasn't in the middle), she tied her ponytail with a lilac ribbon with a pink heart ornament. She double checked that everything was in place and as far as her fringes go, she liked the way she shortened them. '_Is this really me.'_ She couldn't even believe how attractive she looked, she became so amazed with the transformation. _'I'm so going to rock this meeting.' _She looked at the time and realized she was going to be late. She put on the last pieces of her outfit on. First, she put on a cropped long-sleeved sweater-like top, it reached to about the length of her bust. This top was horizontally stripped with two hues of violet, mauve and heliotrope (same as the mini skirt). Next she wore a cute little black mountain-goat horn-bracelet, it was small and swerved around her wrist perfectly.

Hm... it was sort of interesting how she was treating this like some sort of date, but oh well, she wanted to make the change and it was kind of worth it. She loved this new look and now the only thing that was really exposed was parts of her legs. She grabbed her new shoulder length satchel (crossbody bag) and headed out of her room and to the meeting.

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~_Back at the meetin_

Five minutes had passed since the meeting started and no sign of Ino. The hokage was frustrated, she knew that ino had a tendency of always being the last person to come to a meeting. For now, she needed to start and hope that ino would at least come in to catch some of the information.

"Hrrmm..." She cleared her throat. "Well begin now, as you all know the sand shinobi are here on a very substantial mission. It has come to our attention that they-..." She's cut off as the door opened.

As Ino entered the room, it became silent. Once she was in full visual appearance, all eyes were on her. In her mind this was a good/bad thing. For one she new she looked good because a lot of the boys in the room were flushed and had their jaw dropping. In fact this was probably the only occasion were these boys had noticed her, they always tended to not pay attention to her, like ever. When she looked at shikamaru and choji, they looked bewildered and looked aroused from the looks on their faces. When she turned to look at gaara, well he looked a bit calmed, that was before she winked at him which made him made him a little bit more aware, then smiling back to her. The other thing was that she was late and tsunade would have her head. But for some weird way tsunade also looked a bit dazed on what was happening. This was a good chance for her to apologize.

"I'm so sorry that I made everyone wait. I hurried as fast I could but I can't run here since my knee injury still stings." She bowed to show the remorse of her acts, she looked so innocent, anyone would by it.

"INO!" Tsunade shouted. "You always have this tendency of being the last to arrive, where are your manners, this isn't a village assignment, we are dealing with an ally assistance and should be ready to help at any given moment! Understood?!"

"Yes ma'am" Wow she was a bit surprised that the hokage hadn't killed her at this rate, but oh well she got what she deserved for trying to be perfect. And explain to me why everyone was still staring at her? Okay calm yourselves down, she was sure she wasn't the only good looking girl in the room, right? Although sakura, tenten, and hinata were also staring at her a bit, they all looked the same. Nothing new or exciting on them, boring... but hey, she had the most attention, just like she intended.

"Now, like I was saying before..." Tsunade began. "It has come to our attention that the sand village is in great peril. Two weeks ago a rouge ninja from a neighboring city in the wind nation, sneaked into the sand village and stole a classified vault. This vault contains secrets and blueprint of the sand village. That rouge ninja was chased into the our nation, unfortunately the villainous ninja gave them the slip and is now hiding in our boundaries. Since the sand team arrival, they have discovered a parchment containing different coordinates scatter through-out the fire nation. Since they have little time to find the vault and the fire nation is a big place, we'll be assisting them on retrieving their nations most valuable asset. Now, I know most of you don't know exactly what your looking for, but what you want to do is check thoroughly through every location you receive. Anything that seems strange or out of the ordinary, you report it immediately. You will split up into a two man cell and continues from there."

Lee was wondering one thing. "Excuse me hokage-sama?" She acknowledge him and let him ask. "I was wondering how exactly we will communicate if we are able to find anything."

"You will use these seals." She took out a pile of seals from her desk. "All you need is to attach your progress note on to this seal then stick them to a fast animal, it wont hurt them but they will deliver your progress here."

"I was wondering, what shall we do if we find the dangerous rouge ninja?" Shikamaru asked.

"You shouldn't, under any circumstances, charge in with out any proper knowledge of the situation. If anything, you should wait for gaara, temari, and kankuro to arrive at the scene before doing anything reckless. I know I can trust you all to follow these rules, right?" Everyone turned around to look at naruto, if there was anyone who would mess up this assignment, it would be him.

"What!?" He responded.

"You naruto, in specifically... I want you to be aware of the situation. This is no time for you to act unprofessional, you just made chūnin and I expect you to know the consequences of any misbehavior."

"I know." Even for naruto, he seemed too serious. Maybe he's finally seen the light of growing up, ino thought.

"Now, here on my desk are some scrolls, each containing several locations. I will pick one of you to come up and grab one as well as pick your partner that will accompany you. Please be aware that once you have everything, the task begins." Everyone looked at one another before tsunade continued. "Ino! Since you were the last person in, you'll be the first one to start."

"Fine by me." She stepped out of line and walked towards the hokages desk. She picked up a beige scroll tied with a teal colored ribbon and 5 seals.

"Pick your partner."

"Hmm." she turned around to see the people lined up. She knew who she was going to pick from the start but wanted to build up the hype a little, she stepped closer to the person she was going to ask. "Gaara... want to be my partner?" She gave him a small smile. If you thought that everyone's jaw drop when she had first entered the room, you'd wouldn't believe the look of disbelief everyone had on their face's, especially kankuro who was secretly dying to be her partner.

"Ino!" She turned around when tsunade had called her name. "Gaara has his own te-"

"I'm fine with this arrangement." Gaara interrupted and gave ino a returning smile. Now everyone looked even more bewildered than before, they had no idea what was happening. Gaara stepped out of the line and headed for the door.

Ino turned around to give tsunade the alright-we're-ready- to-go look, but tsunade was still in shock that gaara had accepted ino's request. Gaara opened the the door and let ino pass first, such a good gentlemen, ino thought.

When they were walking out of the building, she wanted to apologize up-front about what had happened. "Gaara...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot...I just thought that-"

"You don't have to apologize."

"I just want you to know I didn't mean to cause you a dilemma or anything."

"Don't worry..." He stopped walking and turned to look at her. Ino felt so powerless when she gazed into his eyes and then when he smiled at her, it made her want him even more. "I don't mind." He started walking again and ino began following behind, so he didn't mind being with her, that's great! Hopefully. Ugh, why did she have to doubt herself so much? He made her act so differently. She was terrified at times when he was around, cause if she said or did the wrong thing, he might see how hard she was trying.

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They had made it out of the main gate, and ino gained her composure and began walking adjacent to him. They had walked about a quarter mile before they stopped to look at the scroll. She undid the ribbon and spread the sheet open.

"The first coordinate on here is in the... far north-west... the Sun Flower Village." She handed him the scroll, she just felt a bit more at ease with him holding it. Gaara took one glance at it before sealing the scroll and and putting it away safely in his satchel. When they looked in front of them, two paths laid in place.

"Which path should we take?" Gaara asked. Ino pointed to the path on the right. Gaara nodded and they then began walking to the Sun Flower Village.

The journey seemed like it would go on forever in the first ten minutes because it was so silent. The one thing she dreaded, was silence. It made her nervous. What was he thinking?... was he hating this silence too? The last thing she wanted was to annoy him. Thats why she was surprised when he spoke up.

"You look very divine." He had noticed her since the meeting, but will admit that he was a bit timid to be direct with her.

"I..." She didn't know what to say exactly. She wanted to say that it was all for him, but ended saying the usual. "Thanks." What a coward, she could of at least complemented him back but nooo... she was too reluctant to do so.

"Gaara?" He turned to give her firm look. "I was just wondering... who is this person your chasing?... and what does this person plan to do with the vault?"

At first he wasn't too sure about the whole situation but came to one conclusion. "His name is Komouji Kuren. From the information of our intelligence group in suna, he was able to break into our village and steal the vault with a giftable technique that allows him to phase through solid walls. As far as his plans go, the only conclusion I have is that he wants to cause destruction. That vault contains the entire blueprints of the wind nation, and it'll bring about mayhem, if it used against us."

As they kept on walking ino thought of a couple of things. "You know..." She gathered some thoughts of her past experiences and remembered the similarities. "This happened once at our village. You see, there was this old guy who used to work for the leaf village, without being initially born here. He was a good worker and always did his part, anyone would of thought that old men would be innocent against any hidden crimes. Anyways, one day he disappeared without anyone knowing and on that same day, konohas secret documents went missing. The hokage then ruled one possible suspect and with that he had become the enemy. Fortunately enough, we were able to figure out his hiding location and ruin his 'evil scheme' before it was too late. Well it turned out that he would've went through with his hole plan if he had wanted to, but he was just doing it for entertainment I guess. I don't know... I just think it seems really similar, doesn't it?" Gaara nodded, which to be honest, she wished he would of answered so that they could have kept talking. You know... she really liked gaara as a person, but sometimes it was so frustrating, he ended conversations right when it was his turn to say something. Perhaps that will change in the future, if the odds are in her favor.

They had walked about a good mile without having said anything to each other. In that short amount of time, ino remembered that gaara was a loner, he never really had a friend to associate with. "Remember what you asked me yesterday?" Peaking his curiosity, he turned around to look at her. "What I think of you." She paused for a second looking for the right way to word things. "I think... your a very unique individual, your very serious and mysterious... but at the same time I believe that your kind. I know you don't like to show emotion, but I think you're really suffering by doing so." She smiled sadly. "I suppose that the reason why you don't really know how to let others in... is because... you haven't had a genuine friendship or bond to communicate with." She started getting watery, although she didn't want to. "You don't deserve that (She wiped away her watery yes with her arm). Anyways, I want you to understand that the reason why I've been thinking of you so much is because, Well, I want to ask you if... Um... if you'd like to be my friend?" At this point, both of them had stopped walking and just stared at each other.

Gaara was really astonished by her, yet again. She was offering something he never dreamed of having, someone who wasn't afraid of him, someone who wasn't going to betray him if let in... a friend. No one from the leaf had ever offer such dear affinity to him; even naruto never verbally asked if they could be friends, he just assumed.

"I'm sorry, I must seem so stupid for asking that. I didn't mean to disturb you. Either way... I think I'm trailing further than the mission requires-"

"You're truly humble." He extended his hand in sign of agreement. "I would be more than honored to build & cherish a friendship with you."

At first ino just stared aimlessly at his hand before extending hers, realizing what it meant. They both smiled at each other respectably, knowing that they both had created a new bond.

"Thanks." was all she could say at first.

Gaara immediately shock his head. "No, Thank you." Once they let go of each others hand they began walking to their destination.

Ino was really satisfied that gaara and her were on good terms, even if it wasn't bad to begin with. Anyways, she started wondering what type of place they would have to explore for this mission. It was certainly weird that anyone would go to the Sun Flower village to conduct evil schemes, although, sometimes the most peaceful places were the ones that held the most mysteries.

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Half the day had gone by, as they traveled to the sunflower village. The sun began to set and the moon began to rise. Ino was walking with her hands behind her back, just looking at all the plants and animals. She felt a nice cool breeze push against her skin. It was quite nice being in the outdoors as the sun set, the gorgeous illuminating color gave such a vibrant feeling. The journey seemed a bit too exhausting by this time, she wished she could rest, but only reject that urge. Gaara on the other hand, noticed her pace had slowed down. Once it was completely dark out he stopped walking and turned around to look at her.

"We'll stop here for today."

"What? Why?" She questioned.

"You're tired from walking."

"No, its fine... I- I can keep going."

"Its better if we stop here for now, we can continue in the morning."

"You sure? Taveling to the sun flower village is a two day trip."

He nodded. "Besides your knee might get more injured if we continue."

"Oh right. Well were should we set up the cabin?"

"Cabin?"

"Well you see, I have a cabin summoning seal. My family has had them for generation and to be perfectly honest, this is my first time using them, so... lets hope this works." She took out her cabin summing seal, then she bit her thumb slightly enough to get some blood on it, then placed the seal on the ground. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then a giant cloud of smoke engulfed the area. Once the cloud cleared, they saw the small cabin the laid in front of them. "Success!" She jumped in excitement, They entered the cabin and took notice of the surrounding area inside. There were sleeping bags in the middle, a fireplace, and a rectangular room (bathroom). She unfolded her sleeping bag and set it on the floor. She turned around to see what gaara was doing only to discovered he wasn't even there. She sighed mentally and went outside to look for him. She gazed at all near locations but discovered nothing. She worried where he might of gone off to, she only wished he wasn't mad or anything.

She was about to go inside when she saw little grains of sand falling from the roof. As she walked a bit further from the cabin his form came into contact. What was he doing up there? Perhaps he couldn't sleep. She infused some of her chakra to her feet and climbed up to ask personally why he was up there.

"Not sleepy?" She tapped his shoulder, which seemed to break him from his daydream or something.

"I hardly sleep."

"Seriously? How do you get strength then?"

"I do about four hours of sleep."

"That's really unhealthy. Maybe I can help."

"hm?"

"Well I know some great techniques for falling a sleep."

"Its not the falling a sleep part that I have trouble with."

"Then?"

"Jinchuriki."

Ino looked at him worriedly. She didn't know that much about the jinchuriki, and the effects it had on their human holders. "Perhaps you can talk to it. Naruto got his under control when he was younger and I think it worked for him."

"It's not that I don't have control over it. It's just... this monster has haunted my entire life and I don't know how to react with it."

"Don't give up. I'm sure that when the time is right, an incredible miracle will happen, and you'll be able to rest properly." He only smiled at her, that was encouraging to say the least. It wasn't that simple to tell the great amount of chakra holders to stop tormenting you.

"You should get to bed, we'll be starting at dawn." She nodded at him and with that jumped down the roof.

"Good night." She said to him, as she went inside the cabin.

"Good night, Ino." He responded softly.

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**Questions & Answers #1**

**1) Q: Your characters are a bit OOC, why? **

**A: Honestly, I need them to be a bit OOC so that the story runs a bit more smoothly.**

**2) Q: Is Gaara Kazekage?**

**A: Not at the momemt. **

**3) Q: Why do you like Gaara & Ino as a couple?**

**A: I've liked them both ever since I first saw them on the show. I also love purple,yellow, jade and red hues... Coincidence?**

**4) Q: Are you a die hard naruto fan?**

**A: No, I don't really read the manga or watch the anime. I mean I do know what goes on in it, but I'm not a die hard fan. **

**5) Q: Is the storyline made for what it seems to be? **

**A: You'll be surprised at how it will turn out, thats all i can say. 8)**

**Okay so chapter six has been uploaded, I really hope you gus enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed imagining it. The Q&A is up and there will probably be more, its really just made for you to understand things a little better. Anyways, I won't be posting anything soon because I have to go through some moving plans, but dont worrie, I wont forget about the FF. Thanks for reading! Comment/Review if you guys feel like it * **


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